It was four days perhaps. Catavina to Santa Rosaliíta to Bahia de los Angeles. This is reported as the most significant span without services as far as the Baja Divide route is concerned. Over the past years that has become more the case since El Cardon, a mid-distance well, is no longer occupied. This makes the water haul out of Catavina more critical. I loaded up with 12 liters and ran out at the end of my second day. I still didn’t have the mind to take it easy so I complained to myself – no one else was around of course – about how slow the bike was with all the water.
The route rolled out from north of Catavina some miles and then hung a left to head west toward the ocean. The boojum forest gave way to coastal range, and the lush desert forest faded from view.
The stretch was magnificent. I was beat down by the road conditions and the rollers in and out of the various ensenadas along the coastline but it was Mexico heaven to me. This was the Seven Sisters range on the Pacific. It spans about 150 miles of the coastline. Scott Miller spoke of it fondly as it is an excellent series of point breaks good for surfing winter Pacific swell. I would camp with a small collection of surfers that night. The waves were lazy. The sun was slow to sink. Serenity was on high.
Santa Rosaliíta Siesta. Two days after leaving Catavina I pedaled into Santa Rosaliíta on a back road, tired again from the final 50.miles of brutal egg size gravel washboard. Perhaps some of the worst I’ve ever seen. The slough had me spent and i would rent a room for the next two nights. I was finally slowing down. In sum the ride to this point had evolved from a newbie frantic to get somewhere, to an exposed cyclist now getting comfortable with the journey. Taking it slow was in part what I needed to learn.
Splendid Latin music flowed into the motel window that night. It was incredible. It was a deep and unknowable melody. The lady who ran the tienda/motel was super sweet, did my laundry and set me up with superb juevos rancheros.
Santa Rosaliíta to San Borja. One long day.
Brian Miracle and I would regroup again for the 6th time just south of Santa Rosaliíta. I had departed the village motel earlier that morning and bridged to Brian, who had camped just south of the village that night. After splitting lunch at a roadside cafe, we would again split on the road to Mission San Borja after a very brief hwy transfer onto an east/west dirt road that would take us, ultimately, to Bahia de los Angeles.
I would ride into the night before setting up camp. I would scrape my campsite out in a dusted cow pasture just outside the gate of San Borja, and I would make coffee by morning’s campfire. It’s been reported consistently across the web that the senior gentleman care taker at San Borja is a little schizo. On the day I arrive, he told me to leave so I left for that cow pasture.
San Borja to Bahia de los Angeles. One Day. The final day of fairly long pulls to get from the border to Bahia De Los Angeles. It was nearing Christmas. Brian and I would rest in BolA for the coming week.
The Aussies and the Acid Trip coming up next.